Zuari Bridge will have viewing tower claimed Gadkari at the birthday celebration of Parrikar

The proposed bridge to be built over the Zuari river connecting North Goa to South Goa will have something even Bombay did not have on its Bandra-Worli sea link, a viewing tower on the lines of the Eiffel Tower in the middle of a new bridge.

Nitin Gadkari, who is the Union Minister for Highways, was addressing the huge gathering of 50 thousand people on the occasion of the birthday ceremony of Shri Manohar Parrikar at Campal grounds in Panaji. Manohar Parrikar, the former CM of Goa and presently holding the position of Defence Minister at the centre was celebrating his 60th birthday amidst the union ministers, local legislatures, a prominent businessman and the huge crowd of 50000 people who come to witness this historic birthday party from every corner of the state.

Gadkari said that his dream of building such tower on the Bandra-Worli sea link shattered when Congress came to power in Maharashtra, but he will surely fulfill the same in this state. Gadkari even compared Parrikar’s leadership qualities with the great Shivaji Maharaj. Union Minister Rajnath Singh did not leave behind in this, he praised the initiatives of Mr. Parrikar for transforming the technological capabilities of the Indian Armed Forces saying that, Mr. Parrikar is the first IIT qualified professional who became the defence minister of India and who is hailing from Goa. “As long as BJP Government rules and Parrikar is defence minister, nobody will dare to raise their hands against India,” said Rajnath Singh.

Although the felicitation program was grand, but it was turned out to be anti-climax with the criticism in the backdrop of Chennai flood tragedy. The opposition was seen criticizing the grand bash and questioning the source of fundraising for the birthday celebration. Some have even said that people have been paid to attend the birthday party. Almost 900 buses were used to transport the huge amount of people to the capital city, although people did not get the taste of buffet-styled dinner which was planned earlier but got cancelled due to the criticism from the opposition and social activists.

Parrikar did not remain silent to the criticism of the opposition and gave right back claiming that, Armed forces have been deployed to handle the disaster management at Chennai. “I do not need any certification from anybody for the disaster management operations carried out at Chennai by armed forces,” said Parrikar. He also trashed the rumors of his retirement “People are spreading the rumors of my retirements, but I will not retire until I finish all the tasks given to me and my main job is to transform the armed forces of India,” said Parriakar.

Parrikar Bhai landed at Dabolim airport and arrived at the venue in a motorcade with slogans people shouting in the background “Manohar-Bhai tum age bado – hum tumhare sath hain” but when he reached to the Campal Parade grounds at around 4.45pm most of the chairs out of 50,000 chairs were empty due to people from various parts of Goa were not reached the venue. As the time passed with the speeches of all the dignitaries people started flowing in and filling up the chairs. The most awaited Nitin Gadkari ji reached at 5.30pm while Rajnath ji arrived at 6.10pm.